China shuts down activist law firm

A high-profile Chinese law firm which has repeatedly taken legal action against corrupt police and Communist Party officials has been shut down by the authorities.

By Peter Foster in Beijing

2:37PM GMT 19 Mar 2009

Human rights groups in China said the move was a "very serious matter" and reflected the Beijing government's determination to stifle voices of dissent.

Li Jinsong, the head of the Yitong Law Firm, said the official reason for the closure - that he had "allowed a lawyer to practise without a licence" - was a "pretext" employed by corrupt officials who he accused of embezzling public money.

"On the surface they claimed that the punishment is for the protection of our country," he told The Daily Telegraph, "but in fact it is to cover their crimes and protect bigger interests."

Mr Li is well-known in China as a fearless challenger of the Communist party elite whose past cases include actions and denunciations against the Shanghai police, China's minister of railways and a senior Beijing judge.

His firm has also defended several prominent activists, including the blind campaigner Chen Guangcheng who was jailed for four years in 2006 after highlighting forced sterilisation and abortions under China's "one child policy".

Although China's leaders routinely refer to the "rule of law", in practice the judicial system is controlled by the Communist Party which frequently uses it as a tool to suppress dissenting voices.

Critics say China's legal system is designed to allow the Party to "rule by law", rather than enshrine the rule of law in which citizens' rights are protected against the state.

The case against the firm centred on Li Subin, a lawyer who was working at the firm without a licence after judicial authorities in the central province of Henan refused to renew his licence after he successfully sued them for over-charging.

Lawyers in China must renew their licenses every year, a rule which judicial activists say is often used as a tool to obstruct so-called troublemakers.

Human Rights in China, a New York-based organisation, said the firm may have been punished because some of its lawyers had signed an appeal in August 2008 calling for direct elections in the Beijing Lawyers Association, a government-administered body.

"The six-month shutdown sends a chilling warning to all lawyers that the authorities will not tolerate any perceived challenges to their power," said Sharon Hom, HRIC's director, in a statement. "This is not the path to a rule of law."

The agency that issued the order, the judicial department in the Beijing district of Haidian, declined to comment.